1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the data processing field. More specifically, this invention relates to configuring computer systems in a networked computing environment.
2. Background Art
Since the dawn of the computer age, computer systems have become indispensable in many fields of human endeavor including engineering design, machine and process control, and information storage and access. In the early days of computers, companies such as banks, industry, and the government would purchase a single computer which satisfied their needs, but by the early 1950's many companies had multiple computers and the need to move data from one computer to another became apparent. At this time computer networks began being developed to allow computers to work together.
Networked computers are capable of performing tasks that no single computer could perform. In addition, networks allow low cost personal computer systems to connect to larger systems to perform tasks that such low cost systems could not perform alone. Most companies in the United States today have one or more computer networks. The topology and size of the networks may vary according to the computer systems being networked and the design of the system administrator. It is very common, in fact, for companies to have multiple computer networks. Many large companies have a sophisticated blend of local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) that effectively connect most computers in the company to each other. Most existing computer networks have a client-server architecture, where one or more server machines service requests from client machines (such as desktop computer systems).
Computer networks are typically managed by one or more “system administrators.” A system administrator is responsible for making sure the network runs smoothly. This means that a system administrator typically is responsible for many tasks, including: making hardware upgrades, installing new software on servers, installing software on client machines, setting security parameters for network resources, etc.
One complication for system administrators is that many modern networks include computer systems that run different operating systems, commonly referred to in the art as “platforms”. Each platform has its own unique operating system. As a result, the tools for configuring a client computer system are platform-specific. For example, if a system administrator works on a network that includes IBM zSeries computers, IBM iSeries computers, and IBM pSeries computers, the system administrator will have to learn the platform-specific management tools to set system settings for each of these three platform types. Another complication is that the system settings for each platform may vary in number, type, and name. This requires a system administrator to keep track of which system setting on one platform corresponds to a similar system setting on a different platform. With the complication of many platforms on a network, resulting in different systems settings and different tools for changing those system settings, a system administrator has a difficult job, indeed. Without a mechanism and method for administrating computer system settings for different platforms in a common, uniform way, the computer industry will continue to suffer from inefficient ways of administrating the system settings of computer systems on computer networks.